Wednesday, December 05, 2012

Ayalon dropped - but not Jewish refugees, we hope

Danny Ayalon (Photo: Miriam Alster)

The bombshell news that the deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon, has been left out of Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beteynu party list, in anticipation of the January 2013 elections in Israel, has come as a shock to supporters of the cause of 'justice for Jewish refugees from Arab countries'.

More than any other figure, Danny Ayalon, whose father was a Jewish refugee from Algeria, has been credited with raising awareness of the issue. Ayalon was the driving force behind newspaper articles, speeches, videos, the first ever conference in Jerusalem, and a meeting at the UN in New York in September 2012. The Jewish refugee issue has thrown the Arab press and media into disarray.The Jerusalem Post reports: "Liberman gave no explanation as to why he left Ayalon off the list and he did not mention him in a lengthy speech at a Yisrael Beytenu event in Jerusalem....

"But Ayalon’s departure is thought to be tied to a January 2010 incident in which he was caught on camera instructing a cameraman filming a meeting with the Turkish ambassador, to notice that he had placed him on a low chair, and refused to shake the envoy’s hand in an effort to scold him."

On Facebook Danny Ayalon wrote that he would serve in his post until his term ends, and then in a different role.
“Today I received a message from Liberman that I will be not be on the Yisrael Beytenu list for the next Knesset,” he wrote. “Over the past four years, I had the honor of serving as Israel’s deputy foreign minister at a complex and challenging time. Whichever path I choose, I will continue to work for a strengthened and more prosperous Israel, whether it is in the diplomatic, security or economic spheres.”

However, Stan Urman, chief executive of Justice for Jews from Arab Countries, is confident that the cause of Jewish refugees will not bow out with Ayalon. "Avigdor Lieberman, in numerous meetings, and in public as well, has enunciated his strong support for our cause," he says.

5 comments:

Anonymous
said...

such things happen in politics. God save us from politicians and their jealousy.We are losing an important representative and force in our fight to make the world aware that we exist.sorry to hear thatsultana

I really don't know how Liberman's mind works. But he also left off the list Stas Masezhnikov, Minister of Tourism, who is credited in the tourism industry with much increasing the number of tourists coming to Israel. That is, like Ayalon, he was doing a good job.

I doubt the story about Ayalon being dropped because he insulted the Turkish ambassador. Doesn't ring true. Another story/explanation out there that also doesn't make sense, was delivered in a broadcast by Alon Liel, a former ambassador to Turkey and confidant of Prez Peres, his wife Rahel being a director of New Israel Fund in Israel. Liel claimed that it goes back to a difference in opinion between Deputy PM Silvan Shalom and Ayalon when Shalom was FM. This story doesn't seem to hold water, especially since Liel himself has little credibility. Maybe Liel is just trying to sow dissension within the national camp.

Of course there is another story!!!The story of intesinal fights to gain power!Mr Natayahou is takibg Israel to a dangerous position. And does he know that we Jews in Europe are now in danger because of his policy?I wish Tsippi Livnat wins.sultana

IFKotalSultana: Short of disappearing from the globe, most western Europeans will find fault with anything Israel does or fails to do and refuse to find fault with anything the Palestinians do. If what you are talking about in particular is the recent decision to erect 3,000 units in East Jerusalem/WB, according to a former US ambassador to Turkey, the blame lays squarely with Abbas for proceeding to the UN with a statehood bid in contravention to Oslo, which put an onus on Israel to respond by doing something significant that Israel had forsworn doing via Oslo. It is shameful that so few western democracies failed to follow the US, Canada, Czek Republic and six others by abstaining if not outright supporting Abbas's motion. As I am sure you know, there was a 10 month freeze during which Abbas found some other excuse not to negotiate and besides, construction isn't likely to get underway any time soon.

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In just 50 years, almost a million Jews, whose communities stretch back up to 3,000 years, have been 'ethnically cleansed' from 10 Arab countries. These refugees outnumber the Palestinian refugees two to one, but their narrative has all but been ignored. Unlike Palestinian refugees, they fled not war, but systematic persecution. Seen in this light, Israel, where some 50 percent of the Jewish population descend from these refugees and are now full citizens, is the legitimate expression of the self-determination of an oppressed indigenous, Middle Eastern people.This website is dedicated to preserving the memory of the near-extinct Jewish communities, which can never return to what and where they once were - even if they wanted to. It will attempt to pass on the stories of the Jewish refugees and their current struggle for recognition and restitution. Awareness of the injustice done to these Jews can only advance the cause of peace and reconciliation.(Iran: once an ally of Israel, the Islamic Republic of Iran is now an implacable enemy and numbers of Iranian Jews have fallen drastically from 80,000 to 20,000 since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Their plight - and that of all other communities threatened by Islamism - does therefore fall within the scope of this blog.)